The Lariat's Memorial for Gimmick Matches.

[It's...Baylariat!]

Welcome, wrestling fans. This is the Lariat’s Memorial for Gimmick Matches. There are many gimmick matches to be reviewed in this series and I personally can’t wait to go over their origins and give my two cents on some of the more memorable matches using said gimmick. I’ll review many in the coming weeks, but I’m going to start with a personal favorite of mine…

THE SCAFFOLD MATCH

The Scaffold Match is one of the most dangerous matches in wrestling. Period. The element of danger is more prominent when you’re nearly 25 feet in the air and only the ring can break your fall. Now, I’m sure there were scaffold matches before this, but to me, the origin of the scaffold match begins at Starrcade ’86. The title of the PPV was “Night of the Skywalkers”. It featured the Midnight Express taking on The Road Warriors. Their rivalry stemmed from the ME’s going after the NWA World Tag Team titles and ME’s manager Jim Cornette attacking Precious Paul Ellering, who managed the Road Warriors. The concept of the match was inventive for the day and the element of danger was sold constantly with the commentary from Jim Ross and Bob Caudle.

[YOUTUBE]4OSlncfDaM0[/YOUTUBE]​

The Warriors ended up winning the first Scaffold match and Jim Cornette ended up with a broken leg from falling of the scaffolding. Legit injury. Told you it was dangerous.


But for some reason, the Midnight’s did it again at Starrcade ’87 by facing off with their nemisis’, the Rock n’ Roll Express. There’s no need to go into the rivalry of these two tag teams. They hated each other and once again, were doing battle. In this match, once again, the Midnight’s ended up falling and losing the match.


The scaffold match wasn’t revisited in the NWA/WCW until 2000 due to the danger of the match. But a young, upstart promotion named ECW decided to use it. The most famous Scaffold match that ECW had was Tommy Dreamer facing Prime time Brian Lee in one of the most brutal matches in the history of ECW. Bet NSL is salivating right now. And here’s the match for you, too…

[YOUTUBE]6UUqAlr3z-k[/YOUTUBE]​

See what I mean?


There was also a famous incident were New Jack, an Indy wrestler threw a wrestler off the top of a scaffold and nearly threw him out of the ring. Luckily, the wrestler didn’t fall to the floor and did manage to stay in the ring. New Jack said in numerous interviews that he tried to kill the guy by throwing him off the cage. We’ll never know if that’s true or not. It probably is. Because New Jack’s a mean sum bitch.

Later on, the WCW brought back the scaffold match with Shane Douglas and Torrie Wilson against Billy Kidman and Madusa. It was a horrible match and to be honest, it wasn’t really a scaffold. It was a terrible way to do a great match.

So there you have it. The first installment of the Lariat’s Memorial for Gimmick Matches. Hope you enjoyed it.

 

[Checkmate]

Let me begin by saying good shit. Nice review.

Onward to the match itself, I was never a big fan myself. However, this is the epitome of risk vs reward. Concepts such as Hell in a Cell and the Elimination Chamber put on more of a show and can appear to be more dangerous, but are ultimately safer. This match has one major form of danger that supercedes all others: You can fall, and falling 20-something feet hurts. Simple concept there, but is really overlooked.

This match reminds me of the older WWE intro to a DVD (the please, don't try this at home video) where Jim Ross asks us, "How do you learn to fall off a 20 foot ladder?" While obviously these guys are trained to take hits and fall in just the right way, a fall is still a fall, as evidenced by Cornette's leg. One slip is all it takes to mess up even the best of careers.

I would think that this constant danger only adds to the thrill of the match itself. Anything where chaos and destruction can happen (intentionally or not) at a moments notice draws hoards of people. It is what makes gimmick matches popular, and gives the extra excitement for the crowd. Certainly this match is no exception, offering more than most in terms of spots and danger.

 

[ThePh3nomonal1]

Thanks for this post and I look forward to your next post, but to the scaffold match itself... I never really found the scaffold match entertaining i would just fast forward to the fall or falls, the same with elimination x there is absolutely nothing entertaining about it except for the falls. And the only thing intriguing is the fact that one of the competitors careers could be threatened.

 

[DexVendetta88]

Now this match is definitely a career-ender one way or another. No wonder why we don't see a match like this as much anymore. The closest thing to a match like this would be the atrocious Elevation X match in TNA which doesn't even compare to old school scaffold matches. Now I'm just throwing this out here, but I have a plausible theory that may have led to the end of the scaffold match. Now this wasn't a match, but a stunt which went wrong and I think that everyone should know that it's the Owen Hart incident back in 1999. He fell roughly 80ft (about 4x higher than a standard scaffold) from a harness and hitting chest first on the top rope. This may have been a stunt gone wrong, but I say this might have indirectly led to the rarity of scaffold matches in wrestling today.

 

[bfred27]

Didnt TNA try a match somewhat like this with rhyno and somebody I cant really remember who, but they fought the entire match above the ring in some kind of Ultimate X setup? The match looks incredibly dangerous and makes no sense to use it. As much as I like extreme matches I dont want to see anyone thrown to his potential death.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Nice post indeed! Personally, I am not a fan of scaffold matches - not that I've seen that many, except a few on Youtube and such - I just think that the elements of danger by far outweigh the additional thrill. This mostly because the nature of the scaffold doesn't allow the wrestlers to do much in terms of actual wrestling; you just can't throw a guy around like a rag doll when you're suspended on a rather narrow bridge some 20 feet above the ring, as the risk of unintentionally dropping him down the scaffolding in an awkward way and seriously injuring him is just too high.

I mean, bad accidents have already happened in regular, basic matches - so imagine the additional risk you run when performing stunts that high above the ring. Professional wrestlers may be well-trained athletes, but they are still no circus artists, and also would not have the time to rehearse such a match until every last step and move the make is 100% in their blood and the risk is minimized.

So, to sum things up - considering the extremely high risk compared to the relatively unspectacular nature of the match itself in terms of actual wrestling, I think the Scaffold Match just doesn't really pay off. I guess the legit danger of people falling off does surely create additional excitement, but I don't think it is (or should be) necessary for pro wrestlers to take such extreme risks.

 

[NSL]

There was also a famous incident were New Jack, an Indy wrestler threw a wrestler off the top of a scaffold and nearly threw him out of the ring. Luckily, the wrestler didn’t fall to the floor and did manage to stay in the ring. New Jack said in numerous interviews that he tried to kill the guy by throwing him off the cage. We’ll never know if that’s true or not. It probably is. Because New Jack’s a mean sum bitch.

I'm sure you know the backstory, but I'll fill in the blanks...

New Jack and Vic Grimes had a match, and during the match, a spot was planned for Jack to throw Vic off a balcony, and then dive off on top of him, ending the match. Vic got scared, said he wouldn't do it, and Jack said something along the lines of "Your fat ass is going off this balcony", and tossed him. Vic grabbed his shirt, pulling him down with him. Vic landed on New Jack's head, cracking his skull, breaking an eye socket, and giving him partial blindness in one eye.

A few month's later, some ******ed promoter put them in a Scaffold Match. New Jack intended to throw Vic intpo the turnbuckle, a la Owen Hart, and kill him. The moved the Scaffold Over while setting up all the tables in the ring, and Vic slid off 3 or 4 tables, and bounced off the ropes, slamming into the ring. Here's the video:

[YOUTUBE]vwNIFpnsb7Y[/YOUTUBE]​

Apart from that match, I'm a semi-fan of the match. Dreamer and Lee (as Lariat noted), is an ECW classic, and was used in just about every opening they ever did. The feud was great, and that match was a decent pay off for it. With all of the danger surrounding it, I'm not surprised it hasn't been used in the mainstream, and I doubt we ever will see it again.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

What intrigues me about this particular gimmick match is that this ended feuds. Except for the Rock n Roll Express and Midnight Express, the Scaffold match was a rousing conclusion to a feud. The element of danger is what makes the match so cool. In the older days, that's what sold tickets. Realism. The fact that someone could get seriously injured drew big time, especially in ECW and JCP.

People wanted to see Cornette fly, people wanted to see SOMEONE fly in ECW. So the element of seeing the heel fall to their demise on the mat drew big time. Plus the cage match was overdone back then. EVERY PPV seen a cage match at some time or another. I plan on profiling the cage match in future posts, but the deal was back in the day, many wanted to see different styles of matches. And that's what we got.